Hunting -- Spain; Natural history -- Spain; Spain -- Description and travel
The photo facing p. 158 shows a magnificent old dog-wolf, scaling 93
lbs. dead-weight, which we obtained in the Sierra Moréna, near Córdoba,
in March 1909.
LYNX, OR _GATO CERVAL_
This animal breeds in April and May, and the number of young is
generally two. If captured, the majority of the young lynxes die at the
period when they change from a milk diet to solid food, and one may
imagine that the same thing happens in the case of the wild lynxes,
since otherwise it is difficult to explain why an animal, whose only
enemy is mankind, should remain so scarce. Their food consists of
partridges, rabbits, and other small game.
RED DEER
With the red deer of these mountains, as elsewhere in Spain, the rut
(_celo_) depends upon the autumn, which season may be earlier or later;
but the _celo_ always takes place between mid-September and mid-October.
The calves are born at end of May or early in June, and suckled by their
mothers till the following autumn.
The casting of the horns, together with the change of hair, varies in
date, depending on the state of health in each individual. It generally
occurs in May, but in very robust animals we have seen cases in April,
and in the _barétos_, or stags of one year, in March. The development of
the new horn is complete by the end of July, and in August occurs the
shedding of the velvet. The horn at first is of a white bone-colour, but
gradually darkens, the final colour depending on the nature of the bush
frequented, the blackest being found in those stags which inhabit the
gum-cistus (_jarales_).
Although it is currently believed among country folk that the age of a
stag can be determined by the number of his points, this is incorrect,
the horn development depending solely on the robustness of the animal.
It frequently happens that a stag carries fewer points than he did the
year before.
When the hinds are about to bring forth, they isolate themselves,
seeking spots where the brushwood is less dense, and leaving the calf
concealed in some bush. The habits of a hind when giving her offspring
its first lessons in the arts of concealment and caution are interesting
to watch. Shortly after daybreak the mother suddenly performs a series
of wild, convulsive bounds, leaping away over the bush as though in
presence of visible peril, thus alarming the youngster and teaching it
to seek cover for itself. This performance is repeated at intervals
until the calf has learnt to lie-up, when the hind will do the same, but
at some distance, although in view. She only allows her progeny to
accompany her when it has acquired sufficient strength and agility to
follow, which is the case some twenty or thirty days after birth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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